Providing Quick Links to News Stories of Local Interest. Feel FREE to come back and leave comments on any story. Yes, even anonymously.... No Subscription Fees--No Registration!!! Enjoy!!! http://HermannMoNews.blogspot.com/
WELDON SPRING • A St. Charles County woman was arrested at a McDonald's on Highway 94 Tuesday after leaving her children in a play area while she took heroin in the bathroom, police say.
Kelli L. Horton, 36, of the 7800 block of Mexico Road, was charged today with felony possession of a controlled substance and misdemeanor unlawful use of drug paraphernalia.
Lt. Craig McGuire of the St. Charles County Sheriff's Department said Horton took her children, 4 and 2, with her to buy heroin in St. Louis, then drove to the McDonald's at 5950 Highway 94.
Police said Horton left her children in a play area while she ingested two capsules of heroin in the bathroom.
McGuire said someone called police after Horton came out of the bathroom appearing to be delusional and unsteady on her feet.
Investigators said Horton had several used heroin capsules, two syringes and two spoons with suspected heroin residue.
McGuire said the children were taken into protective custody. Prosecutors could consider adding other charges.
Donate To Keep This Site Alive
______________________________________________________ ___________________________ . .
VIDEO: MISSOURI THE BEAUTIFUL Take a patriotic tour of the Show Me State's natural wonders . . _____________________________________________________________________________
McDonald was riding the bed of a pickup truck driven by River A. Filla, 16, Villa Ridge, according to the amended Patrol report.
The initial report listed the driver as Samantha J. Pritchett, 17, New Haven.
Filla was driving northbound on Vedder Road about a mile south of Route Y. As he rounded a curve, McDonald was ejected, according to the amended report.
The patrol said the accident occurred about 11:45 p.m. Tuesday.
The patrol reported that Pritchett, who allegedly claimed to be the driver, was arrested Wednesday afternoon on suspicion of filing a false report and interfering with an investigation.
A funeral Mass will be Saturday, July 30, at 10 a.m. at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Washington.
Burial will be in Assumption Cemetery, New Haven.
Visitation will be held Friday, July 29, from 2-8 p.m. at Oltmann Funeral Home, Washington.
TPR. J. CONRAD (237) ASSISTED BY TRP. C. BISHOP (202)
110230889
07/26/2011
11:45PM
FRANKLIN
VEDDER ROAD 1.1 MILE SOUTH OF ROUTE Y
C
Vehicle Information
Veh. #
Vehicle Description
Damage
Disposition
Driver Name
Driver Gender
Driver Age
Safety Device
Driver City/State
Driver Insurance
Vehicle Direction
1
2001 DODGE RAM
NONE
DRIVEN FROM SCENE
FILLA, RIVER A
MALE
16
YES
VILLA RIDGE, MO
SELECTIVE
NORTHBOUND
Injury Information
Veh. #
Name
Gender
Age
Injury Type
Safety Device
City/State
Involvement
Disposition
1
MCDONALD, ELIOT L
MALE
19
FATAL
NO
BERGER, MO.
OCCUPANT
TAKEN TO ST. LOUIS COUNTY MORGUE BY RUSSELL COLONIAL FUNERAL HOME.
Misc. Information
CORRECTED COPY - DRIVER'S INFORMATION UPDATED - VEHICLE 1 TRAVELLED AROUND A CURVE. PASSENGER 1 WAS IN THE BED OF THE PICKUP TRUCK. PASSENGER 1 WAS EJECTED FROM VEHICLE 1. FATALITY PRONOUNCED BY NEW HAVEN EMS PARAMEDIC CHRIS S. MILLER AT 00:16 HOURS.
Borgia Graduate Dies Early This Morning After Being Ejected from Truck Bed
by jcovington
www.klpw.com
___________________________________________________________________________
Last night around eleven-forty-five the Missouri State Highway Patrol arrived to the scene of a fatal accident near New Haven. The patrol says the incident occurred on Vedder Road.
According to Missouri State Highway Patrol Accident reports, 17-year-old Samantha Pritchett of New Haven was driving a Dodge Ram when she traveled around a curve about a mile south of Route Y on Vedder.
The patrol says 19-year-old Eliot McDonald of Berger was riding in the bed of the pickup when he was thrown from the vehicle. The recent 2010 Borgia High School graduate was pronounced dead by New Haven Paramedics shortly after midnight.
The patrol said the accident occurred about 11:45 p.m. Tuesday.
Crash Information
Investigated By
Incident#
Date
Time
County
Location
Troop
TPR. J. CONRAD (237) ASSISTED BY TRP. C. BISHOP (202)
110230889
07/26/2011
11:45PM
FRANKLIN
VEDDER ROAD 1.1 MILE SOUTH OF ROUTE Y
C
Vehicle Information
Veh. #
Vehicle Description
Damage
Disposition
Driver Name
Driver Gender
Driver Age
Safety Device
Driver City/State
Driver Insurance
Vehicle Direction
1
2001 DODGE RAM
NONE
DRIVEN FROM SCENE
PRITCHETT, SAMANTHA J
FEMALE
17
YES
NEW HAVEN, MO.
SELECTIVE
NORTHBOUND
Injury Information
Veh. #
Name
Gender
Age
Injury Type
Safety Device
City/State
Involvement
Disposition
1
MCDONALD, ELIOT L
MALE
19
FATAL
NO
BERGER, MO.
OCCUPANT
TAKEN TO ST. LOUIS COUNTY MORGUE BY RUSSELL COLONIAL FUNERAL HOME.
Misc. Information
VEHICLE 1 TRAVELLED AROUND A CURVE. PASSENGER 1 WAS IN THE BED OF THE PICKUP TRUCK. PASSENGER 1 WAS EJECTED FROM VEHICLE 1. FATALITY PRONOUNCED BY NEW HAVEN EMS PARAMEDIC CHRIS S. MILLER AT 00:16 HOURS.
___________________________________________ _____________________________________ . . Donate To Keep This Site Alive
______________________________________________________ ___________________________ . .
VIDEO: MISSOURI THE BEAUTIFUL Take a patriotic tour of the Show Me State's natural wonders . . _____________________________________________________________________________
This undated photo provided by Luis Chiappe shows the Berlin specimen of Archaeopteryx lithographica, housed at Berlin's Museum für Naturkunde. The Berlin specimen of Archaeopteryx lithographica, widely considered the earliest known bird, is getting a rude present on the 150th birthday of its discovery: A new analysis says Archaeopteryx isn’t a bird at all. (AP Photo/Luis Chiappe)
_________________________________________________________________________
Famed fossil isn't a bird after all, analysis says
By MALCOLM RITTER AP Science Writer
July 27, 2011
___________________________________________________________________________
NEW YORK (AP) -- One of the world's most famous fossil creatures, widely considered the earliest known bird, is getting a rude present on the 150th birthday of its discovery: A new analysis suggests it isn't a bird at all.
Chinese scientists are proposing a change to the evolutionary family tree that boots Archaeopteryx off the "bird" branch and onto a closely related branch of birdlike dinosaurs.
Archaeopteryx (ahr-kee-AHP'-teh-rihx) was a crow-sized creature that lived about 150 million years ago. It had wings and feathers, but also quite un-birdlike traits like teeth and a bony tail. Discovered in 1861 in Germany, two years after Charles Darwin published "On the Origin of Species," it quickly became an icon for evolution and has remained popular since.
The Chinese scientists acknowledge they have only weak evidence to support their proposal, which hinges on including a newly recognized dinosaur.
Other experts say the change could easily be reversed by further discoveries. And while it might shake scientific understanding within the bird lineage, they said, it doesn't make much difference for some other evolutionary questions.
Archaeopteryx dwells in a section of the family tree that's been reshuffled repeatedly over the past 15 or 20 years and still remains murky. It contains the small, two-legged dinosaurs that took the first steps toward flight. Fossil discoveries have blurred the distinction between dinosaurlike birds and birdlike dinosaurs, with traits such as feathers and wishbones no longer seen as reliable guides.
"Birds have been so embedded within this group of small dinosaurs ... it's very difficult to tell who is who," said Lawrence Witmer of Ohio University, who studies early bird evolution but didn't participate in the new study.
The proposed reclassification of Archaeopteryx wouldn't change the idea that birds arose from this part of the tree, he said, but it could make scientists reevaluate what they think about evolution within the bird lineage itself.
"Much of what we've known about the early evolution of birds has in a sense been filtered through Archaeopteryx," Witmer said. "Archaeopteryx has been the touchstone... (Now) the centerpiece for many of those hypotheses may or may not be part of that lineage."
The new analysis is presented in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature by Xing Xu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, and colleagues. They compared 384 specific anatomical traits of 89 species to figure out how the animals were related. The result was a tree that grouped Archaeopteryx with deinonychosaurs, two-legged meat-eaters that are evolutionary cousins to birds.
But that result appeared only when the analysis included a previously unknown dinosaur that's similar to Archaeopteryx, which the researchers dubbed Xiaotingia zhengi. It was about the size of a chicken when it lived some 160 million years ago in the Liaoning province of China, home to many feathered dinosaurs and early birds.
Julia Clarke of the University of Texas at Austin, who did not participate in the study, said the reclassification appeared to be justified by the current data. But she emphasized the study dealt with a poorly understood section of the evolutionary tree, and that more fossil discoveries could very well shift Archaeopteryx back to the "bird" branch.
Anyway, moving it "a couple of branches" isn't a huge change, and whether it's considered a bird or not is mostly a semantic issue that doesn't greatly affect larger questions about the origin of flight, she said.
Luis Chiappe, an expert in early bird evolution at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County who wasn't part of the new study, said he doesn't think the evidence is very solid.
"I feel this needs to be reassessed by other people, and I'm sure it will be," he said.
___________________________________________ _____________________________________ . . Donate To Keep This Site Alive
______________________________________________________ ___________________________ . .
VIDEO: MISSOURI THE BEAUTIFUL Take a patriotic tour of the Show Me State's natural wonders . . _____________________________________________________________________________
Callaway Nuclear Power Plant #2 (proposed) - Near Fulton, MO ________________________________________________________________________
Sponsor says Ameren bill’s backers ready if bill brought up in special session
by Mike Lear
July 27, 2011 www.missourinet.com
___________________________________________________________________________
The Senate sponsor of the Ameren site permit bill thinks the alliance that backed it is ready to support it in the special session in September. Senator Mike Kehoe’s legislation would allow electric companies to pass along to customers the cost of getting a new site permit.
In addition to Ameren, it was supported by Empire District Electric, Kansas City Power and Light, the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives, Associated Electric Cooperative and the Missouri Public Utility Alliance. Kehoe says those entities are still talking daily and are in agreement on a balanced approach.
Kehoe thinks the bill fits in with the economic development package already being discussed because the project to build a new nuclear power plant at the Callaway County site would create jobs.
The Senator believes passing the site permit bill in special session could also make the project eligible for grants being considered now in Washington D.C. He says the grants would further reduce the amount ratepayers incur.
So far the special session will deal with the economic development bill and a change in the date of Missouri’s presidential primary.
Donate To Keep This Site Alive
______________________________________________________ ___________________________ . .
VIDEO: MISSOURI THE BEAUTIFUL Take a patriotic tour of the Show Me State's natural wonders . . _____________________________________________________________________________
167 Missouri post offices are on the United States Postal Service’s hit list as targets for possible closing. They’re part of a postal service plan to possibly shut down almost 3700 small post offices nationwide.
The postal service says the closings are not done deals; the list is only of “possible” closings.
The service is considering closing about ten percent of its offices nationwide, saying the increase use of e-mail and the recession-caused decline in advertising mail produced a 58-million dollar financial loss last year.
List of possible closings after the jump:
FERGUSON SAINT LOUIS 63135
GWEN B GILES SAINT LOUIS 63112
JEFFERSON MEMORIAL SAINT LOUIS 63101
JORDAN W CHAMBERS SAINT LOUIS 63106
ROCKBRIDGE ROCKBRIDGE 65741
TRUXTON TRUXTON 63381
WHITESIDE WHITESIDE 63387
FLETCHER FLETCHER 63030
GRUBVILLE GRUBVILLE 63041
MAPLEWOOD SAINT LOUIS 63143
ALDRICH ALDRICH 65601
ARROW ROCK ARROW ROCK 65320
BLACKBURN BLACKBURN 65321
BLAIRSTOWN BLAIRSTOWN 64726
CLARKSBURG CLARKSBURG 65025
DEERFIELD DEERFIELD 64741
DOVER DOVER 64022
DUNNEGAN DUNNEGAN 65640
EAST LYNNE EAST LYNNE 64743
EMMA EMMA 65327
FLORENCE FLORENCE 65329
FORTUNA FORTUNA 65034
FOSTER FOSTER 64745
GILLIAM GILLIAM 65330
HARWOOD HARWOOD 64750
HENRIETTA HENRIETTA 64036
HOUSTONIA HOUSTONIA 65333
HUGHESVILLE HUGHESVILLE 65334
JERICO SPRINGS JERICO SPRINGS 64756
MALTA BEND MALTA BEND 65339
MC GIRK MC GIRK 65055
METZ METZ 64765
MIAMI MIAMI 65344
MILO MILO 64767
MOUNDVILLE MOUNDVILLE 64771
ROSCOE ROSCOE 64781
SAINT THOMAS SAINT THOMAS 65076
SYRACUSE SYRACUSE 65354
CENTER SQUARE KANSAS CITY 64105
CIVIC CENTER KANSAS CITY 64106
HICKMAN MILLS KANSAS CITY 64134
ALLENDALE ALLENDALE 64420
AMITY AMITY 64422
ARMSTRONG ARMSTRONG 65230
BLYTHEDALE BLYTHEDALE 64426
CLEARMONT CLEARMONT 64431
CLYDE CLYDE 64432
COFFEY COFFEY 64636
COSBY COSBY 64436
DE KALB DE KALB 64440
DE WITT DE WITT 64639
DENVER DENVER 64441
FILLMORE FILLMORE 64449
FRANKLIN FRANKLIN 65250
GENTRY GENTRY 64453
GLENWOOD GLENWOOD 63541
GRAHAM GRAHAM 64455
GUILFORD GUILFORD 64457
HELENA HELENA 64459
HUMPHREYS HUMPHREYS 64646
JAMESON JAMESON 64647
LACLEDE LACLEDE 64651
LEVASY LEVASY 64066
LIVONIA LIVONIA 63551
MARTINSVILLE MARTINSVILLE 64467
MC FALL MC FALL 64657
MOORESVILLE MOORESVILLE 64664
PARNELL PARNELL 64475
PICKERING PICKERING 64476
POLLOCK POLLOCK 63560
PURDIN PURDIN 64674
REA REA 64480
ROSENDALE ROSENDALE 64483
SUMNER SUMNER 64681
TURNEY TURNEY 64493
UTICA UTICA 64686
WHEELING WHEELING 64688
WINIGAN WINIGAN 63566
WORTH WORTH 64499
AVILLA AVILLA 64833
BRUNER BRUNER 65620
CEDARCREEK CEDARCREEK 65627
FREISTATT FREISTATT 65654
HURLEY HURLEY 65675
NECK CITY NECK CITY 64849
PONCE DE LEON PONCE DE LEON 65728
POWELL POWELL 65730
PURCELL PURCELL 64857
STOTTS CITY STOTTS CITY 65756
TIFF CITY TIFF CITY 64868
WENTWORTH WENTWORTH 64873
BIXBY BIXBY 65439
BLACK BLACK 63625
BLODGETT BLODGETT 63824
BRAGG CITY BRAGG CITY 63827
BRAGGADOCIO BRAGGADOCIO 63826
BROWNWOOD BROWNWOOD 63738
BUCYRUS BUCYRUS 65444
CANALOU CANALOU 63828
CATRON CATRON 63833
DAISY DAISY 63743
DUTCHTOWN DUTCHTOWN 63745
ELK CREEK ELK CREEK 65464
FREMONT FREMONT 63941
GIBSON GIBSON 63847
GIPSY GIPSY 63750
GOBLER GOBLER 63849
GRAYRIDGE GRAYRIDGE 63850
HARDENVILLE HARDENVILLE 65666
HARTSHORN HARTSHORN 65479
HARVIELL HARVIELL 63945
HOLLAND HOLLAND 63853
HUGGINS HUGGINS 65484
JADWIN JADWIN 65501
KEWANEE KEWANEE 63860
KNOB LICK KNOB LICK 63651
LAKE SPRING LAKE SPRING 65532
LOWNDES LOWNDES 63951
MACOMB MACOMB 65702
MILL SPRING MILL SPRING 63952
MONTIER MONTIER 65546
OLD APPLETON OLD APPLETON 63770
OXLY OXLY 63955
PEACE VALLEY PEACE VALLEY 65788
PERKINS PERKINS 63774
POWERSITE POWERSITE 65731
REDFORD REDFORD 63665
REYNOLDS REYNOLDS 63666
RUETER RUETER 65744
STURDIVANT STURDIVANT 63782
SUCCESS SUCCESS 65570
TALLAPOOSA TALLAPOOSA 63878
TIFF TIFF 63674
VANDUSER VANDUSER 63784
WHITEOAK WHITEOAK 63880
WHITEWATER WHITEWATER 63785
ZANONI ZANONI 65784
BRINKTOWN BRINKTOWN 65443
CHERRYVILLE CHERRYVILLE 65446
CLIFTON HILL CLIFTON HILL 65244
DAVISVILLE DAVISVILLE 65456
ELMER ELMER 63538
EMDEN EMDEN 63439
ETHEL ETHEL 63539
EXCELLO EXCELLO 65247
HOLLIDAY HOLLIDAY 65258
HUNNEWELL HUNNEWELL 63443
JACKSONVILLE JACKSONVILLE 65260
LEONARD LEONARD 63451
MORRISON MORRISON 65061
NEWARK NEWARK 63458
NOVELTY NOVELTY 63460
OLEAN OLEAN 65064
PLEVNA PLEVNA 63464
PORTLAND PORTLAND 65067
RENICK RENICK 65278
REVERE REVERE 63465
RUTLEDGE RUTLEDGE 63563
SAINT PATRICK SAINT PATRICK 63466
SANTA FE SANTA FE 65282
SAVERTON SAVERTON 63467
STEEDMAN STEEDMAN 65077
STOUTSVILLE STOUTSVILLE 65283
TEBBETTS TEBBETTS 65080
WESCO WESCO 65586
WILLIAMSTOWN WILLIAMSTOWN 63473
WOOLDRIDGE WOOLDRIDGE 65287
___________________________________________ _____________________________________ . . Donate To Keep This Site Alive
______________________________________________________ ___________________________ . .
VIDEO: MISSOURI THE BEAUTIFUL Take a patriotic tour of the Show Me State's natural wonders . . _____________________________________________________________________________